Mass Effect EP11: Makos, Geth, and Falling Cruisers, Oh My!

By Josh Posted Saturday Nov 10, 2012

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 133 comments


Link (YouTube)

I remember a time when I believed there was no way Bioware could possibly replace the Mako with an exploration mechanic that would be anything but a complete improvement.

I was wrong. I was so very wrong.

 


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133 thoughts on “Mass Effect EP11: Makos, Geth, and Falling Cruisers, Oh My!

  1. Jace911 says:

    We didn’t know, Josh.

    We didn’t know.

    1. MrGuy says:

      We didn’t listen! We didn’t listen!

      1. James says:

        after the boredom of probing, the nonsense of turret sections, i miss the mako, it broke up combat, and it did it well, it was fun, and more importantly funny, mako is an example of things we miss from bioware, well intentioned sections, with dodgey mechanics and some minor plot flaws.

        maby with DA3 and ME4 we’ll get bioware back. we can hope, we can dream!

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          As someone who liked mako even back in 1:
          I told you so!

          1. Luhrsen says:

            I liked being able to do an Evil Kenevil over random canyons in that thing. Being able to actually fly in the ME2 tank just wasn’t as special.

            1. RCN says:

              When the hell do we actually fly in a tank in ME2?

              1. Luhrsen says:

                The Firewalker DLC. I’m not saying it flew well or far…

                1. Mike S. says:

                  “Tank” also implies some amount of armor. :-)

          2. Jingleman says:

            Yeah, I liked it too, but I didn’t like the learning curve. In fact, come to think of it, I don’t think I started really enjoying the Mako until the second or third play-through, which was how long it took to get the hang of that horrible handling. I don’t know what to make of that, then, overall. Does something count as good if it is only good after 60 hours of practice? I played it on the 360; I wonder if that makes a difference. Shamus seemed to think it made it worse. I guess it shows how good the other stuff was in that game, that I played it enough to become competent enough on the Mako that that thing became fun.

            1. Cupcaeks says:

              Ironically, while playing the PC version I always wondered if the vehicle sections would be better with a gamepad and wrote it off as being a section that wasn’t ported over well from the 360, but I guess it was just wonky all around.

              Shame it all got axed in the sequels, though. Planetary exploration in ME1 was kind of boring (okay, maybe really boring), but the foundation was there for something that could have been interesting at the very least, and it gave the universe a sense of scale that I found was sorely lacking in the sequels. As it is, it feels like the smallest galaxy in the world.

              1. anaphysik says:

                “the smallest galaxy in the world”

                Current status: lol-ing at that phrase.

          3. Jakale says:

            When there isn’t a bottomless pit or a lava pool around forcing you to be careful and making the Mako’s semi weightlessness annoying, it’s a really enjoyable, ultimate off-roading sort of vehicle. My favorite bit was going up near vertical mountainsides and ramping off the top. After seeing the other games, being able to explore worlds non-linearly is also pretty refreshing when you’re actually playing, though I got a bit annoyed at the multiple planets with those monkey things and the exact same mossy landscape texture.

        2. Cody211282 says:

          After DA2 it was “at least TOR and ME3 will be good” Then after TOR it was “at least they can’t crew up ME3.” You want to give them more chances?

          1. Zukhramm says:

            I thought it was “after ME2 there’s no way they won’t screw up ME3”.

            1. Cody211282 says:

              I actually liked ME2… Mostly because I had faith the writers could fit it into the 3rd game properly, and because mostly because everything that wasn’t the main plot was really really good. Plus I liked the idea of the suicide mission.

    2. Wedge says:

      You know? I actually preferred the probing to the Mako. Yeah, it was just a mindless skinner box, but that made it a lot more engaging than the infuriatingly bad Mako sections of the game.

      No, really, this section is actually painful for me to watch, for reminding me just how. Fucking. ANNOYING the god damn thing is to drive. Like, how fucking hard can it be to make something that you can DRIVE IN A STRAIGHT LINE.

  2. Deadfast says:

    Launching probe.

    All Bioware had to do was fix their terrain generator to produce smoothed hills, create a few more rooms for the prefab bases and give Mako some extra weight. Removing the exploration missions completely, at least for me, ruined the sense of scale. Not a good result when you have space as your setting.

    Probe launched.

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      They didnt remove them completely.There still were a few places where anomaly detected.And then you would load screen down to a walled of thing to get some junk.

      1. Jingleman says:

        Yeah, I remember being excited about this before ME2 came out, when they were talking about how they tried to make each “exploration” location in ME2 a unique and exciting environment that would really make the galaxy feel like a diverse place. Then, it turned out to be just the “anomaly detected” stuff, which took all the feeling of exploration out of the game. Very disappointing. They could have just fixed the Mako sandboxes, if that was the problem. Make them look unique. Easier to navigate. Something. Additional dungeons on random planets is not exploration.

      2. newdarkcloud says:

        Ugh. I do like that ME3 simplified the probe away system and made it a lot more manageable.

        The whole “Reapers attack you if you probe too much” is dumb though.

        1. Amnestic says:

          When I first heard about the Reapers Attacking thing I was actually optimistic, I was thinking “That’s awesome! We probe, the Reapers attack and we engage in some space combat with the Normandy. You can try to run or try to fight and you actually get to properly pilot for once!”

          Then I found out it’s just a matter of cheesing the sector borders and hitting a Reaper is an instant game over. gg Bioware :<

          1. anaphysik says:

            Actually it’s a matter of running around the system pinging like crazy to see where everything is, then letting the Reapers catch you.
            Then you hit Resume and it loads the autosave that the game makes whenever you enter a system, and then you go get all the stuff in the system now that you already know where they are.

    2. KremlinLaptop says:

      I’m fairly certain that the only reason the probe minigame was put into ME2 was so they could add that few lines of easter-egg dialogue from EDI when you inevitably go probing Uranus.

      …It just seems like the sort of thing Bioware might do on a bad-day. Build a whole horrible game mechanic just so they could get a setup for a very bad joke.

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Well,to be fair it was a nice joke,but only because of the delivery.

        1. anaphysik says:

          Also because Uranus is not simply ‘Poor’ in mineral resources (like Nepune), but is specifically Depleted. Seems Shepard is not the first to enact their sophomoric mining commands.

          But yes, the delivery is the saving grace.

          1. Dasick says:

            Until you realize that EDI never mentions the name of the probed planet. Unless the planet is Where The Sun Don’t Shine.

            1. IFS says:

              Clearly there is a cerberus programmer somewhere (possibly TIM or Miranda) who thought of the same joke and decided to program EDI to be sure that it was delivered properly.

              1. Luhrsen says:

                I’m sure it was programmed in by a ‘Rogue Cell’.

            2. krellen says:

              The second time you probe, she says “*sigh* Probing Uranus.” And yes, she does sigh.

              1. anaphysik says:

                Dasick’s point is that EDI never says “Probing [Planet]” for any planet *except* Uranus. So really there’s no expectation or reason for her to say it except in recognition of the gag.

    3. 4th Dimension says:

      Better than adding weight would be to bind weight change to ctrl and shift, so you could dynamically change weight of MAKO. After all the only reason it’s so light are mass effect generators.

      It would also add a whole dimension to MAKO combat. Decrease it’s weight and you can fly further. jump and increase weight mid flight and crush geth armatures.

      1. I’m envisioning the engineers who have been working on how Mass Effect generators work, scratching their heads and asking “Why would anyone want to make something heavier? That’s insane!”

      2. Another thought: Decrease its weight even more, and you’d have a shuttle that could just fly over the problems in your way. :)

        1. 4th Dimension says:

          Problem with the shuttle idea is that than you have what is bassically a butterfly in stom scenario. Mako then simply has no momentum, and can be blown around by wind, and is realy unstable.

          Also Mako has no flight surfaces, so flight wouuld be problematic. Long jumps are fine though.

  3. Aldowyn says:

    ME2 doesn’t even HAVE an exploration mechanic really comparable to the Mako. The scanning system just isn’t at all similar in any meaningful way >.>

  4. Tse says:

    24:28- When the Mako’s a’rockin’, don’t come a’knockin’…
    At least I think that was the gist of the joke.

  5. CruelCow says:

    Is there an explanation why we never see another one of these non-bipedal geth in ME3?

    1. Viktor says:

      Because if they’d added non-human geth, they’d have to cut money to their bloom budget, and no one wants that.

      Also, could someone link the comic mentioned at 11:04? I have no clue what they’re talking about there.

    2. Irridium says:

      Because then they would have an enemy that avoided cover-based shooting. And we can’t have that!

  6. Indy says:

    That is a cool payoff for a puzzle but I can’t remember if there’s another like it in the Mass Effect series. The closest thing I can think of is turning the mech against the Eclipse in Garrus’ recruitment mission in 2. And that was a worse puzzle and worse payoff.

    Is there another good payoff for a puzzle in this series?

    1. Klay F. says:

      There was a puzzle exactly like this in the original KOTOR. On Manaan, on the sea floor. You had to rig the pressure on some combustible fuel just so, so it would explode and clear some rubble.

      1. Aldowyn says:

        Yeah, I was on tvtropes and ran into it the other day. Three plus five make four.

  7. Viktor says:

    I think it gives you your full loadout of grenades here. If you’ve bought the upgrades, you can have 8-9, which is easily enough, even without melee.

    The Mako really just needed to have the gravity turned up. It was fairly controllable on the console, just…prone to flight. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone modded it to be better. Now if only Bioware had done that.

    1. IFS says:

      There’s also a box containing a few grenades, so even without upgrades it is possible to get everyone if you’re careful. Also melee knocks them out rather than killing them, although the game never explains this.

      1. anaphysik says:

        Melee is in fact the best way to handle this. Just gotta be careful that you’re close enough to them not to shoot them instead XD

    2. Daemian Lucifer says:

      The whole point of the mako was the low gravity.Thats not what was the problem.Take the dlc from me2,it controls much better,because its not prone to flipping around.Too bad that its so weak.

      1. Asimech (Sumanai) says:

        I still feel the Mako had a broken suspension. Like the shock absorbers were too weak and the springs weren’t properly tightened. Or something. Dammit Jim. I’m an electrician not a mechanic.

        1. Phantom Hoover says:

          The standard joke is that Shepard didn’t know how to set the mass effect fields to anything other than “really damn light”.

    3. False Prophet says:

      You also don’t need to rely on the gas grenades. If you punch the possessed colonists with your melee attack, that also counts as a non-lethal takedown.

      1. Cupcaeks says:

        In the twenty or so times I reloaded that section, I NEVER figured that out. Was there an in game tip that I missed mentioning that? I just assumed it would be lethal because that’s how it works every where else in the game.

        1. anaphysik says:

          As far as I know, nope :/
          Had to find that out online after I kept running out of grenades.

  8. Yeti says:

    To be fair, I wouldn’t have bothered exploring ME3.

    Imagine: you land on a either an arid or junkyard planet and go through several corridors with chest high walls and mooks. Then you are introduced to a SUPEREPICBADASSBROFISTBRO set piece. After killing more dudes you are then presented with a 6 minute long cut scene which tells you that you now have 4d20 more war assets and 5d10 more gol….credits. Oh, and there is a piano too. Then back on the Normandy Hackett pats you on the back and tells you that mowing down those cerberus/geth/husk/robot/orc mooks went really far in stopping the Reapers and taking back Earth!

    Edit: Oh, and Hacketts adds that “killing civilians”, “impaling dudes on dragon’s teeth”, “being a space zombie”, “rebelling against their creators” or “being generic bad guys” is their usual M.O.

    ….and then after all this your game crashes due to a ninja windows update restart.

    1. Jingleman says:

      I’m not sure exploration would have made much sense in ME3 anyway (if it ever did in ME1) when you’re supposed to be on a time-sensitive mission to stop the end of the galaxy, which is happening RIGHT NOW. Not a great time to take a minute for stellar cartography.

      I did like it in the first game, though. Really added to the sense of scale. So did many other details, for that matter, like the airlock sequences when exiting the Normandy, and even the excruciatingly long elevator rides. A lot of those things were gone in the sequels, so even with much more content, they felt smaller to me.

      1. Klay F. says:

        Too bad they balls’ed that up anyway by having time only pass after doing priority missions.

      2. IFS says:

        They could’ve given you areas to search for survivors, for example when you are asked to go to the Elcor homeworld they could’ve given you an open area to explore for groups of survivors that you can’t quite lock on to with the scanners or something. They could’ve worked it in.

  9. Daemian Lucifer says:

    I always preferred cold abilities to fire ones,in all the games.Slowing down your enemies,sometimes even halting them completely,whats not to like?Although,fire in me2 was really good,because it made them panic and jump around.

    1. Luhrsen says:

      And lots of people carried things that exploded when hit by fire. Plus the ubiquitous red barrels. And DoT is always fun. Also fire works against armor of which there was quite a bit. I could enjoy fire right from the start but cold (at least in ME2) tended to not keep pace with the level of enemies until the end. As in most of the time it had minimal to no effect.

      1. Jingleman says:

        I did like that the different ammo types correlated by effectiveness to different defenses like shields and armor. It added a layer of strategy to the gunplay, if you played a gun-heavy character, as I did. The effects could have been stronger, though, I agree.

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          If only there was a creature with a huge health bar and no armor,so that cold would work well on them,but nope,the biggest ones had just the huge armor.

          1. Aldowyn says:

            “huge health bar and no armor” just means you can throw biotics at it. Once something gets down to just health it’s effectively already dead.

            1. Luhrsen says:

              Yes but if you have cryo you probably don’t have biotics personally.

        2. Dasick says:

          Choosing different ammo types to take down different armor types wasn’t much of a choice; you’re just putting the square in the square-shaped hole and the triangle in the triangle-shaped hole.

  10. Dasick says:

    This is the real tragedy of Mass Effect (1 and the series). There was potential. Pure awesome base, lacking polish to really bring it out. It was Bioware’s first game towards the pantheon of gaming legends, where Deus Ex, Thief and System Shock reside. It was their last.

    Anyone wants to say some final words?

    1. Jingleman says:

      Totally right here, but don’t forget Bioware’s earlier triumphs, like KoTOR and Jade Empire. It’s a shame how that brand has fallen. Used to love them so much. Now secretly hoping that they don’t create sequels to the games I loved, like Jade Empire, for fear of them ruining another promising franchise.

      A moment of silence is in order. R.I.P. Bioware, you squandered the last of your goodwill with the most terrible ending anyone has ever seen.

      1. newdarkcloud says:

        Are you aware that they plan to make another Mass Effect game?

        1. Amnestic says:

          According to a quick google Mass Effect 4 has gone into early stages of development and Casey Hudson has apparently turned to twitter to ask fans what they want in game.

          It won’t have Shepard though. So…that’s…something?

          1. Mattias42 says:

            As long as the Mass Shift rumors prove untrue, I’ll be happy. *Shudder.*

            1. Amnestic says:

              Oh wow. I’d not read that before but upon looking at it…it better be a hoax. That sounds truly 12-year-old-fanfics level of awful.

              Given that the Extended Ending DLC cuts out the possibility of the Terminator stuff if you take certain endings, I can only assume that either Bioware rethought their plans or it’s definitely hoax territory.

              Especially since Control seems to be the ‘best’ Extended Ending out of the three. At least in my opinion.

              1. Mattias42 says:

                Yeah, normally I’d chalk it up to fans (and/or trolls) being silly, but Bioware looked at the original endings to ME3 and actually allowed it to ship like that.

                Let’s just say that my fate in Bioware is already quite broken.

                I did hear that particular rumor before the extended cut was even announced, so changed plans would not surprise me. The “leak” happened during the height of the “artistic integrity” malarkey though, so I could sadly easily imagine it being a (hopefully) abandoned draft.

                After all, The Crucible is such a fascinating character! Who wouldn’t want him driving around your Shepard as a brain-dead meat-puppet? Ugh.

              2. newdarkcloud says:

                Mass Shift was a confirmed hoax.

                As for this new ME game, I really think continuing the series is a bad idea. What more do we need to know that you feel comfortable with letting Bioware elaborate on?

                1. Mattias42 says:

                  I tried looking for a confirm or denial but I didn’t find a non Bioware forum source. Any links?

                  Honestly I’m not opposed to more being done in the universe, no pun intended. It is just that the way the original trilogy ended left me feeling so disappointed and downright angry, that I feel completely uninterested in any continuation.

                  If they do manage to salvage the franchise with ME4… Well I’m not holding my breath and I will frankly never preorder a Bioware title again. Once bitten, you know?

                2. Gruhunchously says:

                  Maybe they could get Obsidian to do a dark and murky deconstruction on the entire series with exceptional characterization and atmosphere and rushed and poorly constructed ending (which still manages to be better than that of Mass Effect 3).

                  1. newdarkcloud says:

                    Of course, Obsidian usually has at least a rough outline of what they intend to do, then work around technical/time constraints.

                    Meaning that they’d at least have a plan for the ending before crunch time.

                    1. Even says:

                      Plus they actually have some writing standards (even if they still occasionally miss).

    2. lurkey says:

      Pssst. They are there – with Baldur’s Gate series. Now, want me help you out of your high chair? ;)

      1. Jingleman says:

        Ooh, yeah, Balder’s Gate, too. Forgot that was Bioware. Man, so many great games out of these guys. Come to think of it, did Bioware ever really whiff on a title prior to Dragon Age? And even that had a following. Mass Effect 2? I’m not sure if I can really pin down the exact drop off point, but it was precipitous. I guess it was the EA merger, but that’s such an easy scapegoat that I’m hesitant to buy it.

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          Well neverwinter nights 1 was crappy.But it did have awesome expansions,and of course the aurora thing.

          1. Mattias42 says:

            I personally consider NW2 superior in every aspect, although i never reached the end of the first one. But for some reason I’ll hazard a guess that they managed a better ending the “Rocks fall, everybody dies!”, so I”l give it that.

            However! For it’s time NW1 was a stunning looking game and the cubes aside the dept and flexibility of the editing tools are still impressive. Never tried it, but from what I’ve heard there is still a thriving online community as well, not bad considering the age the game.

            The story though… I wonder if there could be something in that? Bioware has always had amazing character and set-piece writing, but most of their games plot weren’t exactly Shakespeare. The Bioware formula anyone?

            I had not thought of it before, but an argument could be made that Bioware have never been good at writing stories. Mass effect 3 was simply the first time the plot was so rotten to the core that the rest of the experience couldn’t save it.

            1. Daemian Lucifer says:

              The story in nwn1 was really bad.The only thing that got me through it were the henchmen,and their stories.So yes,even then bioware had cool characters,but lame main story.

              1. Mattias42 says:

                Yeah, but something I found interesting is that the only game Bioware has made so far where the plot was really good (Jade Empire), has a interesting name in the writing credits!

                Mack “Lots of speculation!” Walters!

                Interesting how some peoples talents just evaporates when put in charge…

                *Edit, added source.*

                http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455965/fullcredits#writers

                1. krellen says:

                  Creative people really need someone to rein them in – behind every great author is a great editor. Just look at the difference between Lucas-with-reins (original trilogy) and Lucas-unleashed (prequels/special edition).

                  1. Bryan says:

                    Oh, I don’t know. Sure, what you say about George Lucas is true. But what about (…almost everything except maybe the last season of) B5? JMS didn’t really have anyone to rein him in, being the executive producer of the series, and it worked really well, almost all the time.

                    …On the other hand, this is definitely an exception rather than a rule, and he did have something like fifteen years (IIRC) to get the story down before starting to actually create it. So probably not something we should be expecting. It is, however, a counterexample. :-)

                    1. krellen says:

                      Well, if you think Babylon 5 was awesome. I’ve grown far less fond of it as time goes by and I actually examine it.

                2. lurkey says:

                  There’s also Mike “Something Awesome” Laidlaw there and as a lead to boot. Anyway, it’s not like Jade Empire didn’t have its derpy moments, so you can imagine they’re responsibility of those hacks. >:-)

            2. Dasick says:

              The story though… I wonder if there could be something in that? Bioware has always had amazing character and set-piece writing, but most of their games plot weren't exactly Shakespeare. The Bioware formula anyone?

              First of all, BioWare aren’t playing to their strengths; making memorable, sympathetic characters. It’s possible that their plots would have been much more interesting if they were character driven.

              Second, I suspect the plots had to be nailed down first, as soon as possible, leaving very little room for (wait for it) re-iteration(!) I also suspect that the character bits we all know and love were written as bonus content, were reworked and scrapped almost constantly, because hey, they’re just extra stuff, right?

              1. Mattias42 says:

                Wasn’t the ending of ME3 in flux until a month before going gold or something ludicrous like that?

                Besides, the greatest failure of ME3 is easily a lack of player agency.

                Remember this trailer? I’m certain Bioware hopes you didn’t!

                I would have liked to play THAT game…

                1. Dasick says:

                  The story I heard is that the ending was re-written by the lead writers, at the last moment, without peer review of the other writers (as was the custom).

                  http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/5695/article/mass-effect-3-writer-allegedly-slams-controversial-ending/

                  But my line of reasoning is, the plot informs every other aspect of the game (well, it should ;) ) – level design , choices to make, enemy design, combat, art style, cut scenes and voice acting etc. It has to be nailed down first for those things to be built on top of it, and if it shifts too much, large portions of your assets have to be rebuild to make sense.

                  1. Mattias42 says:

                    Yup, that was what I referred to.

                    But thanks for the link, I had heard of that forum post, but never read the whole thing before.

                    1. Mattias42 says:

                      I do realize that no production have unlimited time and money, but where not talking about one guy in his basement and a cool idea for a pong ripoff here.

                      Mass effect, Bioware and EA, those are huge names and I don’t get, why did they force something like that out the door so quickly?

                      Considering how rare certain return on investment is in ANY medium, why not take your time and make certain that you end up with something that gets talked about for years to come, instead of laughed at… Sigh.

                    2. Dasick says:

                      Possibly because it’s run by a publicly traded corporation.

                      It seems like there is this paradigm, this prevalent idea among businessmen these days… that to be successful you have to act like locust swarms (or maybe it’s the shareholders and stock traders that act like this?) You come into a cultivated field, you squeeze it dry and move on, leaving someone else to re-cultivate this field.

                      The problem is, it’s non-sustainable, and only works in the long term if the locusts are the minority, which they aren’t. You can see this not only in games, but also in the fields of foresting, livestock and international trade.

                    3. Jingleman says:

                      Nah, it’s not the corporate structure that’s causing them to rush things out the door. They’d have the same problem if they were privately held.

                      Every day you spend on the game costs money. Every day the game isn’t out the door is a day that no one is paying you money for it. No company can go indefinitely without selling something. They have to make an assessment, before they take on a project, about how much they think it can sell, and they can’t spend more money or time on it than that without risking their business on the hope that they’ll produce a rare masterpiece. The more they stretch it out, the riskier it becomes, even if the product is getting better – because they were supposed to have assessed the risk/reward correctly in the first place. Companies have to keep moving to stay afloat. It means that they have to deal with deadlines, but it’s usually a less-risky way of doing business. That’s good, because it means that game developing can be a viable industry, but the downside is that corners sometimes have to be cut if developers run over their schedule or budget. Overall, I’m pretty sure the profit margins in this industry are paper-thin, even for “giants” like EA.

                      The only alternative is to be diversified enough that you can afford some leeway when things go slower than predicted. If you don’t happen to own Steam, you’ve got to try to capitalize on fads and trends so that your “guaranteed” annual hit can fund some cushion on the deadline for your artistic darling.

                      So I don’t think the Mass Effect disaster was a result of some inherent deficiency of the business model or corporate structure. Rather, I think that somebody just dropped the ball when it came time to decide if the public would like the direction the project was going. Just some stupid decisions, that’s all. It looks like Bioware just needs some different people in those roles these days.

                    4. Dasick says:

                      True, haven’t thought of that.

                      Also, wasn’t ME3 released right in time for X-mas?

                      However, this is also the case of the publishers dropping a butt-load of money into a project and requiring a huge turnover just to cover the expenses of making the game in the first place. Surely that is a factor as well?

                    5. Jingleman says:

                      Actually, Mass Effect 3 was delayed until March. That’s the kind of thing that strains the budget for a game, and it’s all part of the economic analysis that goes into these things beforehand: they decided that optimally, they would release during the holidays, but that they could afford to go as long as March but no farther without risking financial failure on the project (and probably hurting or killing other and future projects in the process).

                      With regard to the financing of the projects themselves, I’m not familiar with EA in particular, but I think most businesses operate on leverage (debt). That’s all part of the analysis that sets the deadlines going in. They “borrow” money (either via actual loans or venture capital investments or issuing bonds or more stock or whatever) based on how much they think a project will make, and then the deadlines are set based on how long they can carry that debt before they need to start making a return. They have to keep moving to stay ahead of their liabilities and show marginal profits in the long run.

                      Regardless, I think you’re right in that the sales from a game release probably pay for the last three years, not the next three years, which is why the deadlines and sales goals have to be so strict (the company has to discharge its debts or they will balloon). That’s my impression of how it works, anyway.

      2. Dasick says:

        Well, what I mean is, the games I listed, not only do they have great stories to tell, they are great games in their own respect, and they interweave the two rather well.

        I respect the kinds of things Bioware has done in the past, and there are large aspects of their current games that deserve admiration as well. However, in their games, story and game have been kept at a distance, and the gameplay itself has fundamental flaws(heavy reliance on dice rolls).

        To this day, if I say “Deus Ex” on the Internet, someone will re-install the original game, play through it and find at least one new story bit, one stash they’ve missed, one path they didn’t take, or see the game elements interact in a way they haven’t seen before. 11 years later.

    3. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Well I take consolation in the fact that dying of heroes of might and magic has spawned king’s bounty the legend.So with the downfall of bioware,I expect the rise of some new company that will give us excellent rpgs in the near future.

      1. Dasick says:

        Former BioWare employees, making an RPG/strategy mash-up about vikings.

        http://stoicstudio.com/forum/about-stoic.php

  11. Jingleman says:

    I don’t know if somebody mentioned it in the original run of this episode, but Samuel L. Jackson was in the third Die Hard movie, not the second one as Shamus said in the episode. The second one (Die Hard 2: Die Harder) was in an airport and featured former Senator and Presidential candidate Fred Thompson in a memorable role. That was also the last one that was a Christmas movie (the first Die Hard is still my pick for greatest Christmas movie of all time).

    But yeah, Samuel L. Jackson plus Bruce Willis in a videogame equals near-incomprehensible awesomeness. Possibly dangerous levels of awesomeness. Let’s do it.

    1. MrGuy says:

      I am so tired of these motherlovin’ Geth on this moverlovin’ planet!

  12. MrGuy says:

    The Thorian-possessed colonists were insolent.

    I had them liquidated.

  13. anaphysik says:

    In this episode, Shamus once again complains about a Mako being found in a garage. IN A GARAGE. A GARAGE. THAT’S WHERE VEHICLES ARE FOUND GRARASOFKMSA.

    Yeah, the Mako doesn’t teleport; it’s not a unique model, and the garages on Noveria and Feros simply have their own Makos. (It might make more sense for them to have other models of cars for you to use (and to be fair, they do have other models, though they aren’t usable), but I can give that a pass.)

    1. MrGuy says:

      Yes. Garages are where vehicles are stored.

      These particular garages have exactly ONE vehicle. It’s always lined right up at the door, prepped and ready for use. Like you’d called the parking lot attended 30 minutes before coming down and he’s set everything up for you.

      Also, if you’re going with “these are common vehicles – everyone’s got one around somewhere,” why hasn’t anyone (ever) taken the time to customize these for optimal performance for that planet’s local terrain and gravity? Really? There’s no one why knows how to adjust the shocks? Don’t give me that “there’s a low local gravity” unless the gravity is somehow smart enough to snap back to “normal” every time you step out of the vehicle. (And even if the local gravity is less than the vehicle was originally built for, why isn’t there anyone with enough physics knowledge to rig a few heavy stones up to the back end to hold the thing down better?)

      Yeah, all the Mako criticism that goes beyond “Oh, they decided to build in a vehicle section” is a little nitpicky. But given the amount of care that went in to a lot of Mass Effect’s world building, having the exact same vehicle on every planet, and every location having EXACTLY one, and every location having it prepped, ready, and pointed towards the door YOU need feels sloppy. Mass Effect put a lot of effort into this sort of thing, so they get graded on a harder curve.

      1. Aldowyn says:

        The problem with the Mako on Noveria is that I’m pretty sure it is the ONLY time we see one identical to the one you normally drive around, but there’s absolutely no explanation for how it got there.

        1. Luhrsen says:

          And Theros. :)

    2. Shamus says:

      In this comment, you complain about my complaint, and then you go on to RECOGNIZE THE VERY REASON FOR THE COMPLAINT ADSDSADSKJASDKJ!

      So, the garages in these places just have tanks sitting around where anyone can hop in and start blasting stuff?

      Either way, it’s silly.

      1. anaphysik says:

        “In this comment, you complain about my complaint, and then you go on to RECOGNIZE THE VERY REASON FOR THE COMPLAINT ADSDSADSKJASDKJ!”

        If I didn’t do that, how could I leave an opening for you to complain about my complaining about your complaint?

        “So, the garages in these places just have tanks sitting around where anyone can hop in and start blasting stuff?”
        Of course! You mean you *don’t* want a future where you can play bumper-cars-with-cannons?

        But anyway, I wasn’t saying that ‘military-grade vehicles for everyone!’ wasn’t silly (because it is, and becomes even sillier when everyone has the exact same vehicle models), but that the ‘teleporting Mako’ meme is (e.g. see the video description). (Although I don’t know who writes those. Maybe Josh did this one.)

      2. Daemian Lucifer says:

        “So, the garages in these places just have tanks sitting around where anyone can hop in and start blasting stuff?”

        Why not?Its a dangerous place,so you wouldnt want your explorers to go there unarmed.After all,there are thresher maws all around the galaxy.

        1. Dasick says:

          A rogue Cerberus cell released them, to test out the effects of Thresher Maws being released all over the galaxy.

          Now every garage has a Mako in it.

          End result? Cerberus is way more helpful in ME1 than they ever were in ME2.

          1. gyfrmabrd says:

            Oooh, but that explains how Cerberus got the funding to build an army thrice the size of the Alliance – they manufacture Makos!

            1. el_b says:

              according to the fluff, cerberus pretty much makes everything everywhere all the time, it wouldn’t surprise me if the illusive man himself is Heading a rogue cell.

          2. Cerberus Public Relations says:

            Cerberus would like to thank you for your public support and send you a gift of gratitude — a collectible thresher maw plush. It’s cute, cuddly, and squirts sulfuric acid when you hug it. How adorable.

            1. IFS says:

              Great I can put it on the shelf with my cerberus brand model reaper, made out of real reaper tech! Whats that model reaper? Kill all organics? Why would I want to do that?

      3. Kian says:

        In defense of the complaint, having Joker radio over to say “Now that we have access to the garage, we’ve had someone move the Mako there for you to use” would have solved the problem. I’ts not unreasonable to think that vehicles get there after being offloaded from the spaceship that brought them, and that there’s a special service entrance for them to get in and out of spaceships docked at the site that’s different from the personnel entrance you arrive through.

        This applies to Noveria, not so much to Feros though. Then again, it’s just a matter of having someone explaining things. As it stands, you only know you need to use the Mako because you found it there, with no communication with anyone beforehand explaining that it would be necessary.

  14. 4th Dimension says:

    You can’t destroy those small legs holding up a light cruser, but you CAN destroy with small arems fire, supports for a freaking dreadnought (Reaper baby) in ME2

    1. anaphysik says:

      Let’s not even get started on that. You shoot out *glass* transparent aluminum <_< supports. Glass supports which have retractable metal shielding. Just… just what.

      And because I’m a materials scientist, I ought make clear that by ‘glass’ I’m talking about something that appears to have similar properties to silica glass, and not simply making a comment on non-crystalline atomic structures.

    2. gyfrmabrd says:

      It’s because the amazing technological regressionadvance to using regular boring ammunitionheat sinks made weapons moar powerful and betteraarrgharrblhemorraghingbileagain

      1. el_b says:

        it would have been much better if old non-heatsink weapons were still around then you can actually see that they possibly were a lot weaker. It would at least give a good excuse for getting rid of such a seemingly superior weapon.
        That said, I’m pretty sure if you just added more and more barrels to your infinite ammo machine gun the power level would even out eventually, and because of technological advances the weapons could be small enough and light enough to still be man portable.try comparing a single blue Suns Merc with a crappy 30 round assault rifle against a volus with seven infinite ammo miniguns strapped together.

        oh man,Someone totally needs to draw that!

        1. Dasick says:

          Mass Effect 3 multiplayer allows you to play as an Elcor. That team is full of Cool People(tm), so I’d stay tuned in.

          1. IFS says:

            They let you play as an elcor? since when? I played two nights ago and there were no elcor. I think you mean volus, which exist primarily as a joke class. I actually like some of the justifications for it (they have very low health, so they rely purely on shields for protection, the bio states they need what amounts to power armor ro fight, and they have no melee), although it still makes little sense. Although I for one hope to see Elcor in the future.

            1. Dasick says:

              Yeah you’re right. The term “seven infinite ammo miniguns strapped together” made me think of the big blue guys that are know for their stellar performances of Shakespearean Plays.

              1. el_b says:

                i chose volus to show to sheer power of such a weapon, here is some elcor warfare.

                http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4a8uc3o5p1ql5e0ao1_500.jpg

                still pretty win.

        2. Amnestic says:

          Ah, but you see if they kept the old guns in game then it’d be harder for them to recycle the models/designs from the guns in ME1 for guns in ME2/ME3 without that same disconnect occurring. They’d have to come up with even more new models for guns.

          The worst part of thermal clip design, in my opinion was the source: Geth tech. In ME1 you can actually get Geth Pulse Rifles as an AR weapon and of course they use the same cooldown mechanic as all the other guns. If the Geth Pulse Rifles used the Thermal Clip design in ME1 and been noticeably more effective for it, it would’ve gone a long way to making them more palpable in ME2/3.

          1. el_b says:

            I don’t even remember geth weapons being that strong, it seems kind of unlikely that they’d be the next big influence for the next generation of firearms. considering that the geth still use 300-year-old sniper rifles According to Legion, that would make the quarians the most advanced weapons manufacturers in the galaxy and they can’t even fight a cold.

            1. Dasick says:

              To their credit, killing someone is always way easier than keeping someone alive.

            2. Amnestic says:

              The geth weapons, like all other weapons in ME1, were inferior to the Spectre gear. The Spectre Gear which you never see again after ME1 which is a walking plothole in and of itself (lampshaded slightly by Mordin in ME2 but as others have pointed out – merely pointing out your bad design doesn’t stop it from being bad design, it merely shows that you’re aware of it).

              1. Jingleman says:

                I thought there were Spectre weapons in ME3. You buy them in the Spectre office on the Citadel, right? They’re alternate versions of the heaviest weapons in ME2, I thought.

                1. Amnestic says:

                  Those aren’t Spectre weapons, they’re just expensive weapons. The Pistol is a Carnifex variant designed by law enforcement for undercover agents, the Shotgun is popular among slavers/pirates and is banned in Citadel space (but I guess you can get it ‘cos…you know, Spectre) and the Sniper Rifle was an Alliance-made mod of the original Widow rifle.

                  No ‘official’ Spectre gear like in ME1, just stuff you get from the Spectre shop which I guess can source some of the rarer stuff.

                  1. Luhrsen says:

                    The sad thing for me was that these “advanced” versions somehow seemed less effective than their counterparts in ME2. But then even the regular Widow became weaker somehow than it had been.

                  2. Jingleman says:

                    Oh, I see what you’re saying. Yeah, the original Spectre Gear was great. I don’t really understand why the Spectres, who are supposed to be independently operating spy-commandos, ever had their own weapons manufacturing firm, but the gear was pretty sweet, nonetheless.

  15. Wow. Would you look at those eye animations? They’re far more lifelike and less disturbing/derpy than the ones in ME3.

  16. gyfrmabrd says:

    These season 1 videos remind me how much I hate ME1’s color coding. I mean, the next two games have their share of uninspired visuals, but just look at Feros! Everything is basically grey, and if it isn’t grey, it is some ugly smeared red that’s also sorta greyish. And it’s more or less the same on every other planet, with the exception of the corridor drive on virmire , and some of the random side-missions. Nothing in this game visually pops. It’s one of the prime reasons I can’t bring myself to replay ME1 anymore. That, and the kinda boring, grindy combat.
    And the ages-long Eden Prime – Citadel turorial/intro section.
    And the fact that the prolonged exposure to 2 & 3 have by now almost completely retroactively eroded my immersion for ME1.
    Still, I’d rather slog through 1 again than having to endure the sequels…
    Dammit, it’s early, and I’m grumpy.

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